


Hideaway

by kimstaticchild



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fairies, Fairy, GT, Gen, Magic, Size Difference, Size Fic, TINY - Freeform, fae, giant, size!fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-23 14:57:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6120058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimstaticchild/pseuds/kimstaticchild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the task of Tablet-translating beginning to take a toll on him, Kevin Tran is left in a warded motel room to decompress after his latest breakdown. However, his forced attempts to relax go awry when he realizes his room has another occupant, and she isn't so keen on sharing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic a few months ago, and I was my first time solo-writing anything SPN-related! I didn't have the confidence at the time to write the Winchesters, so I tried my hand at Kevin Tran, since he's always been one of my favorites. 
> 
> As far as timeline goes, this is placed around the ending of Season 8 or the beginning of Season 9. There's a point at the beginning of Season 9 where Kevin is absent because he's taking a break from tablet-translating. That's what inspired this fic in the first place.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy! :D

He shouldn’t have let Sam and Dean convince him to take a break. Even with the tablet miles and hours away from him, the symbols floated in his mind’s eye, and his fingers twitched until he grabbed the pen off the table. He held it over the pad of paper before slamming it back down beside an empty take-out box and kicking the chair out from behind him.

Inching towards the window, Kevin grabbed his cellphone and the gun Dean had left him. He peeked out in between the curtains, making a quick sweep of the parking lot for anything unusual. Nothing to be seen, like the last dozen times he’d checked. He didn't know why he even bothered with the gun. The sort of things that came after him could only be slowed down by mundane weapons, not killed. And if he called Winchesters for help, they couldn’t arrive in time to save him.

It wasn’t that he doubted the wards on the motel room. They seemed pretty solid. Anyone within its walls couldn’t be tracked by anything searching for them. The wards were a pain in the ass to make and only temporary, but Dean swore it could last for a week. Kevin insisted he was staying for no more than two days.

Pulling away from the window, he set the gun down among his other precautions: salt, holy water, an iron knife, and boxes of assorted bullets. A devil’s trap hid under the doormat. At least the Winchesters agreed there was no such thing as being too careful.

It was past midnight, and Kevin was nowhere near sleepy. He sank back into the chair, sitting under the only lit lamp in the dim room. He thought about turning on the TV, but he grabbed the pen again before he even knew what he was doing and scribbled symbols he remembered from the tablet. This little vacation was supposed to clear his head, but he was willing to bet that he was more stressed than ever. Well… at least he hadn’t had another breakdown since arriving at the motel. Maybe there was something to be said for that.

Absent to everything but the scratch of pen on paper, Kevin almost didn’t hear the other noise. He stopped writing. At first he thought it was a cellphone buzzing, but his phone was right beside him, and the noise wasn’t coming from there. He turned to look at the rest of the room, wondering if it was the pipes rattling.

Something moved in the darker corner of the motel room by the bed, but Kevin only caught it out of the corner of his eye. The second he stood, the movement ceased along with the noise.

Sliding out from between the table and chair, he took the iron knife in one hand and the gun in the other. His eyes never left the other side of the room, heart thumping. Part of him wondered if this was what he wanted. For something to happen. Something to take his mind off those damn symbols. He shook the thought away. _I’m not that crazy._ He secured a firmer hold on both weapons and took soft steps toward the foot of the bed. The knife was at the ready; letting a gun fire off in the room was a last resort.

The sound didn’t come again. He leaned out to look at the space on the other side of the king-sized bed. Nothing. He stayed tense, shuffling closer to jab the knife at the empty air. Still nothing. Swallowing hard, he lowered both weapons and straightened up. The room wasn’t big.

If there was something there, he would have seen it. And if it was invisible, he would have bumped into it.

_Relax. Just relax._

Trading the knife and gun for the remote control on the nightstand, he flopped onto one side of the bed.

A sound came from somewhere beside him.

Sucking in a gasp and dropping the remote, Kevin bolted into a seated position no sooner than he had put his head down. He whipped to the side, but the noise had been short and sharp, like a squeak. His wary gaze rested on the spare pillow on the other side of the bed. The noise had come from there. He was sure of it.

Wrinkling his nose, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stepped back. It had to be a mouse or a rat. “Thanks a lot, guys,” he muttered. If Sam and Dean were really set on giving him a break, they could have at least taken the liberty of booking a halfway decent place without complementary rabies. “Okay…”

After contemplating the room, he huffed and went over to the table to grab the empty Chinese take-out box. All his weapons, and he couldn’t bring himself to use any of them. He wasn’t about to get blood on the sheets over a _mouse_. Still, he felt a shiver crawl up his spine once he hurried back to stand over the pillow. Weird that after all he had been through, he was squeamish at the thought of finding a rodent under a pillow. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to scoop the thing up in the box, but it was a worth a shot.

“Okay, okay,” he muttered, gripping the edge of the pillow. Before he could change his mind, he swept it off.

Nothing.

“Shit.” It must have moved.

He leaned over the bed to grab the other pillow and tugged it aside as well. His heart leapt to his throat in the same instant. A pair of tiny red eyes fixed on him before he slammed the take-out box onto the bed with both hands.

Sleep-deprived. He was sleep-deprived.

The brief glimpse he’d gotten hadn’t been of a mouse.

Last time he checked, mice didn’t have butterfly wings.

He kept his hands firmly around the box when he felt the small thing bouncing around in there, trying to escape. And then a tiny, muffled voice came from within. “Ow!” Heat seeped right through the cardboard walls of the box, forcing him to yank his hands away.

Not a moment later, the box leaped off the bed and exploded into flames in mid-air.

Kevin yelped and lurched away, tripping over his own feet and falling back onto the carpet. In hindsight he should have made a grab for a weapon, but he was fixated on the burning box. The bed should have caught fire as a result, but it didn’t. The flames faded, and the box disintegrated, ashes floating onto the bedspread like dark snow.

There was the buzzing again. The source--the little… _thing_ hovered in the air for a moment before landing among the ashes. A tiny young woman. She glared daggers at Kevin, arms stiff at her sides. Her heavy breaths paused when she looked down at herself. She was smeared with leftover soy sauce from inside the take-out box.

“You!” She jabbed a finger at him. She had some kind of British or Irish accent he didn’t have the capacity to place at the moment. “Look what you did! Disgusting!”

Although she had landed on her feet just fine, she stumbled to the side before righting herself again. She shook her head and fixed her scowl back on him. She lifted her hand--palm out this time in a gesture that could only be a threat. Kevin half choked in alarm and shuffled back, wondering exactly how painful it would be to burst into flames.

“I claim these wards!” the girl exclaimed. It was hard to tell with how small she was, but it looked like she was blinking hard. Her voice rose up again, sounding strained. “I’ll give you one chance to leave this place. Or, I’ll… I’ll…”

Snapping out of his stupor, Kevin staggered to his feet and bolted for the knife on the nightstand, spinning back to the tiny girl. He lowered the weapon in surprise.

The fairy was passed out on his bed.

There was a _passed-out fairy_ on _his bed._

Clenching his jaw, he shuffled closer, unsure whether to believe she was really unconscious. But why would she needed to pretend? He saw firsthand she had the firepower to attack--in the form of watching a freaking take-out box spontaneously combust. There was no reason for her to trick him. Nonetheless, he kept a tight grip on the knife while he leaned over her. Her wings twitched, and he froze, but then they fell slack behind her. She didn’t stir beyond that, but he caught the faintest movement of her breaths.

Everything he’d learned since coming in contact with the Winchesters told him not to go near. But something from before all that--something achingly curious--compelled him to keep staring. He had never seen anything like her before.

It was the wings that drew his attention first. They were shaped like butterfly wings--orange and red with dark dots scattered throughout--rimmed with deep gold all around. Her loose, cherry-colored hair fanned out on the white fitted sheets like a pool of blood. Her clothes were grey and earth-toned and looked hand-stitched.

Turning the blade in his hand, Kevin moved end of it towards the fairy, amazed to find that she was even shorter than the handle itself. He prodded her arm with the end of handle, pulling it back after the briefest contact. She didn’t flinch. Steeling himself, he nudged her again gently with the end of the handle until he managed to roll her onto her back. He winced at the awkward way her wings folded to one side beneath her.

Up close, her light brown face looked more unnervingly human than ever. She had some kind of bright orange tattoo-like markings beneath her shut eyes--short swirling patterns lined with dots.

“Oh, crap,” Kevin breathed, catching sight of something far more alarming.

She was missing her right hand. The hem of her long sleeve was tucked into a long strip of dark cloth wrapped around the stump where her wrist ended. There was no blood to be seen, and the cloth didn’t look like a bandage. It was probably an old wound. Seeing as she was so small, any number of things could have happened to her hand.

But if she was so powerful, how could she let it happen? Then again, she had fainted right in the middle of issuing a threat.

As an ocean of questions churned in Kevin’s mind, his safest options took charge of his thoughts. Kill her, call Sam and Dean, or get out of there.

Or even better: all three.

For all he knew, she had been sent by Crowley or an angel to nab him. But she had fainted after _one_ attack. Who would send someone that lame to kidnap a prophet? She had gotten past the wards, but… The wards were only meant to protect him from people tracking him.

If she wasn’t tracking him, then what was she doing there?

Kevin’s eyes swept over her tiny form. How could someone who looked so vulnerable have the ability to conjure flames? She could have been planning some kind of sneak attack, but by the looks of it, her only move so far had been an act of self-defense. He guessed he’d fight back to if someone slammed a cardboard box over his head.

Regardless of what things looked like, he needed answers. It didn't look like she'd be able to give him any for a while.

He started to move away, then hesitated. Maybe he should move her to the table. Taking his eyes off her for more than a second made him nervous. Switching the blade to his left hand, he reached out with every intent of scooping her up. Before his hand came within six inches of her, he curled his fingers and dropped his fist to his side.

He backed up instead of turning away, watching her like a hawk while knelt down by his duffle bag and produced his laptop. Pulling an armchair from the corner up beside the bed, Kevin set the laptop beside the unconscious fairy, astounded at the way the movement jostled her even when he tried to be careful.

Gaze flicking to the tiny girl constantly, he pulled up a search engine on the browser. Had to start somewhere.


	2. Chapter 2

Attempting to sort the truth from the junk while researching fairies was even more frustrating Kevin would have thought. He found himself wishing he was at the bunker. At least the resources were trustworthy there. In his mounting annoyance, he thought a few times about calling Sam or Dean to casually ask for them to look into the Men of Letters records about fairies, but they would know something was up and rush over.

He could handle this.

Without knowing, they had already given Kevin some assistance on the matter. He remembered them mentioning encountering fairies a couple of times. Something about spilling salt in front of a leprechaun, leaving him no choice but to stop what he was doing and count the salt grain by grain. It should work on _any_ fairy. At least that was one strange myth from the Internet he could put some faith in, along with a weakness against iron. He had plenty of iron. 

But… they’d also mentioned encountering a good fairy at some kind of LARPing event. That one had gotten off the hook in the end, which was a rare thing in the Winchesters’ line of work.

As far as the Internet was concerned, there was a broad range of folklore in terms of good and evil. There were different species of fairies from a variety of realms. Some fairies were straight-up vicious, others were tricksters, a few were helpful (for a price), and some were neutral. But in almost every legend he came across, the power of making unbreakable deals with humans was involved. Since pretty much all the folklore included magic, there was no telling what exactly the tiny fairy beside him was.

Sighing, Kevin shut the laptop and swept it off the bed. The fairy hadn’t so much as twitched, but he worried every moment that she would spring back into consciousness. The sooner he set everything up, the better.

Making sure to keep the fairy in his line of sight all the while, Kevin gripped the iron knife and backed up to the table to grab the bag of salt before heading over to the nightstand to get a tissue. He stood over the tiny girl on the bed, laying the tissue out right beside her and spilling a pile of salt onto it. Nothing happened. He guessed she had to be awake for it to work. _If_ it worked. Maybe not all fairies worked with the same rules. Keeping that in mind, he held onto the iron knife in case she charged at him.

The alarm clock on the nightstand read 1:03 AM when he took a seat on the armchair he had pushed beside the bed. He sat up straight at first, tense and prepared to duck away if necessary. Fifteen minutes dragged by, and then thirty. He wasn’t sure how long he dozed off, but he awoke to a soft sound. 

Whispered numbers. A tiny voice.

He was close to bolting out of his chair in alarm, but he froze when he looked at the bed. The fairy was kneeling over the tissue, her right elbow propped on her lap while she pinched grains of salt one by one with her left--and only--hand and set them aside while she counted.

It worked.

His stare of amazement became a stonier expression when her eyes--an even more startling red than her hair--flicked up from the napkin at him. Her tiny hand didn’t stop grabbing the salt, and she didn’t stop muttering the numbers. She was up to 16. Despite her obvious attempt to look exclusively pissed, he recognized fear in her gaze before she dropped her head back down.

Words began to lace into her counting. “You’re, 21, craven, 22…”

Kevin frowned. “Uh… What?”

She pursed her lips like she was trying to hold the numbers in, but they came out. “25. 26. You, 27, hunter. 28. _Craven._ ” She said hunter like it was a curse word.

Scrambling for words, he could only manage, “What makes you think I’m a hunter?”

“Ha! 35. Only a hunter, 36, 37, would do, 38, something so, 39, craven.”

Her manner of speaking was strange. Kevin knew for a fact that he never heard an actual person use the word “craven” since his PSAT study sessions in high school. He scoffed, realizing she was calling him a coward. “Says the chick who was hiding under my pillow. That sounds pretty _craven_ to me.”

That made her go quiet for a few moments, other than counting. “46, you weren’t, 47, using the pillow,” she grumbled.

Relieved that the salt had given him the upper hand in the situation, Kevin leaned closer to get a better look at the fairy now that she was awake She wouldn’t look at him, but he saw the way her shoulders tightened and the way her wings twitched.

A faint stab of guilt resonated deep within him at how nervous he made her. He brushed it aside. It wasn’t like he was hurting her. He was only protecting himself from getting barbecued. He let a triumphant smirk touch his lips. “Weird, how someone who can make things burst into flames is stopped by a little salt.”

She gave him a brief glare. “Craven. 57, 58…”

The fairy wasn’t even a fraction of the way through the pile of salt. If Kevin left her to it, she would be stuck there for a week. He sat back and swore he saw her shoulders slump in relief. She raised her eyes to send another potent glare his way. What would he accomplish by leaving her there to count? Now that he knew the weakness was valid, he was in control. But there were still plenty of questions to ask. Just because he had her trapped didn’t mean he would get truthful answers.

The fairy lost her nerve and dropped her head again when he spoke up again.

“You know, it’s a little hard to talk to you with all those numbers in between.” Kevin hesitated. It wasn’t just that. Maybe she would be more willing to cooperate if he freed her from whatever the hell was making her count that salt. “I’ll move the salt. If you don’t attack me.”  
Surprise flickered over her tiny face. “63?”

“Uh. Yeah.”

She stiffened again and wrinkled her nose, nodding down towards his hand. “67, you have worse, 68, than salt, hunter.”

“Huh.” Kevin didn’t even have the knife in her line of sight, and she knew it was there. He lifted the blade to look at it himself. The fairy gasped in alarm and tried to rear away from him, but her hand refused to budge from pile of salt and yanked her right back. She kept counting, but her voice was higher, breathier. Terrified. She was stuck. They both knew he could bring the blade down on her, and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it.

Biting back the instinct to assure her he didn’t plan to do that, he kept his tone firm. “I won’t have you use it you don’t attack me.”

He expected more resistance, but she gave a vigorous nod.

The tiny girl went even more rigid when Kevin’s hand inched for the tissue. Her counting didn’t falter even when her widening eyes locked on his fingers. She looked like she was trying to lean away, but it was no use. Figuring he may as well ease her fright quickly, he pinched the corner of the tissue dragged it away. At first it looked like she was going to follow it, but she snapped back once the salt was a good distance away. She flexed her fingers and rubbed her right forearm. Kevin stayed tense, watching her hands-- _hand_ \--and kept a hold on the tissue in case he saw even a candle’s strength of fire.

Her wings fluttered to life.

“Hey!” Kevin shoved the salt back to its original spot, but it was too late. She flew to the center of the room almost faster than he could whip his gaze to watch. Triumphant laughter floated to him like a gentle breeze. He bolted to his feet and put his iron knife up. In the same instant, she threw her hand up with her palm out.

“I claim this warded haven,” she said a voice that was convincingly commanding for her size. “Leave, or you’ll regret it.”

Kevin clenched his jaw as his mind raced. This was familiar. Before passing out, she said she would give him a chance to leave. She would give him _a chance_. Monsters didn’t do that. Monsters didn’t give chances when they wanted something.

He stared at her, and she stared back. Neither of them lowered their threats of attack, nor did they make any move to go through with it.

The silence dragged on for a full minute, and Kevin chuckled.

“Why are you laughing?” the fairy demanded.

“Because… You can’t do it. Something’s stopping you.”

Her steady hover became erratic in her outrage before she settled down. “I’ll burn you alive if you don’t surrender this place to me! I’ve taken from humans by force before, and that’s what I’m going to do now!”

Kevin shook his head. “No. You won’t, and you haven’t. You would have done it already.” He pondered, but he didn’t lower his knife. “Maybe it’s a conscience thing. Or maybe that last fire attack took too much out of you. Or maybe you can attack if you wanted to but you’re thinking… _hmm, is it worth the risk_?”

“Stop,” she hissed. A flicker of flames appeared at her fingertips. Only a warning.

“If you threw some fire, _maybe_ you’d kill me, right?” he went on. “But you don’t know for sure if it’d be a clean kill. Maybe I’d survive long enough to knife you. That’s why you won’t do it.”

“Hold your tongue. That’s stupid.” Panic began to mount on the tiny girl’s face when he stepped around the bed to walk slowly towards her. But she wouldn’t move.

“Fairies are legendary,” he said. “Supposed to be really powerful. But you… You can only make a box explode before passing out--”

“Quiet!”

“--Is it because of your hand? Looks like you use the one you’ve got for magic. I’ll bet that losing one of them cuts your strength in half or something, doesn’t it?”

When he stopped within arm’s reach of her, she had her jaw clenched and looked close to tears despite the rage in her expression. She couldn’t hold her arm steady towards him. It was the weirdest thing to see such a human expression on someone so small. All of that anger and fear, packed onto one tiny face. And he was the cause of it.

“You’re all bark and no bite,” he finished.

The fairy dropped her hand to her side. “I’ll leave. I’ll go. Just please--”

Kevin lashed out with his free hand and plucked her out of the air. The winged girl screamed bloody murder and writhed with all the hysteria of a person being dragged to the chopping block. Her short hair rustled when he pulled her down so she was level with his chest. He knew it was a stupid move, but he was confident that he was right. As he suspected, she couldn’t attack with her arms immobile and pinned to her sides. 

“Did someone send you here?” he demanded. “Do you belong to someone?”

“No one!” she gasped. “I belong to no one!”

He cringed at the sensation of her minuscule struggles. Her delicate wings beat over the back of his his hand uselessly. Tiny arms and legs tried to force some wiggle room within the curled fingers of his fist. He could feel every one of her short, panicked breaths against his skin.

“Hey, easy,” he murmured. “You’re going to hyperventilate.” 

The fairy threw her head back to look up at him. She stopped. Her breaths slowed. All the sudden, she looked grave. Eerily calm. “You should burn me after.”

Kevin blinked. “What?”

“Burn me. After you kill me. You think you’ve seen ugly with human spirits, hunter? Ha. I pity anyone who has to deal with my angry spirit.”

He stared at her disbelief, letting out a startled laugh. “You’re serious?”

She really thought he was going to kill her. She could try all she wanted to keep her expression passive, but he could feel her shaking in his grip. She looked about as high strung as he had ever seen a person. Considering the company he kept, that was saying something.

Her composure was ruined with impatience. “Aren’t you going to do it?” she snapped.

Kevin shook his head. “No. We’re not done here.”

Then she didn’t bother trying to hide the fear from her face.


	3. Chapter 3

“How about we make a deal?”

Kevin’s suggestion made the fairy stop. She had been writhing around again and grunting with effort, desperate to free herself from his grasp. He tried not to squeeze her, but he had no choice but to apply steady pressure to keep her tiny limbs in place. Even if he had a feeling she wouldn’t attack, there was no guarantee of what she would do in her panic if her arm got loose.

She narrowed her eyes at him in confusion and said nothing.

“Fairies make deals, don’t they?” he asked, wondering if there was a hole in his research. “Why do you look so surprised?”

“Because only humans who go seeking my kind are the ones looking for magic deals to fulfill their selfish desires,” she said, a suspicious edge to her tone. “Otherwise, my kind only initiate the deal-making process in a crisis. Such as… being captured by a human.”

“So why didn’t you try to make a deal with me in the first place.”

“Ha! You’re a hunter, not a regular human.” She wiggled a little in his fingers, as if he would be distracted enough by their conversation to loosen his hold. She gave up and raised her eyebrows at him. “You hunters hate magic and the like. Suggest making a deal to a hunter? I’d have a better chance of living if I kissed the God of Death.”

He lifted her a little closer to eye level, trying to meet her gaze. He hesitated, wondering if it was in his best interest or not to tell her the truth. Maybe she would be more willing to go through with deal. Otherwise, they’d stay at a stalemate. “What if I told you that I’m not exactly a hunter?”

She scoffed and jerked her chin at the room. “Guns. Knives. Iron. Salt. Don’t hold it against me for saying you’re a terrible liar.”

“It’s just for protection,” he insisted, turning his hand to catch her eye and give her an earnest look. “I don’t actually go out hunting for anything.”

“Do you think that will convince me to make a deal with you?”

He shrugged. “Is it working?”

The fairy looked down at his hand with a scowl. She gave one last tug before she looked resolved. It must have been strange for her to be the one wary about deal-making, rather than the other way around. From what Kevin understood, fairies were the ones to go around tricking humans with unexpected outcomes to deals. 

“What are you terms?” she asked, lifting her solemn gaze to his. For once, her eyes didn’t flee after a second or two. “Hypothetically.”

Kevin thought hard about how make sure there weren’t any loopholes. From the way the fairy acted, the legends were right. Deals were magically locked and powerful and binding. One wrong move could doom either of them. He had to stay safe on his part, but make sure she would be willing to go through with an agreement that kept her protected as well.

“I’m going to ask you questions and you have to tell the truth,” he announced. “If I decide that you’re not a threat by the end, I won’t hurt you and you’ll be free to go.”

A frown touched her tiny features. He thought she would outright reject his terms, but instead she advised, “You need to be more specific, hunter. How many questions?” She cocked her head. “I won’t do more than five.”

“Five, then.” He should be able to gauge what he needed to know about her from there. “Are you ready, then? I mean, uh… Unless we’re still being hypothetical here. Do you accept the terms?”

“Oh, no.” A mischievous glint entered her red eyes that made Kevin second-guess the whole deal thing. “I haven’t named _my_ terms yet. I need to know about you too, hunter. I will also ask you five questions. And… If you don’t deem me a threat, then you must surrender this place and these wards--”

“No.”

She sighed. “ _Alright._ You can stay. But… If neither of us deems each other a threat, you must let me share your wards. You will make no attempt to hurt me--no iron and no salt, either. And I promise I won’t try to kill you. Are you satisfied with these--Oh, wait! You also have to put me down before the questioning begins!”

Kevin laughed nervously, glancing at the ashes on his bed. “I’m not sure about that.”

“This room is neutral territory during the questioning,” she added, giving her wings a hopeful flap that tickled the back of Kevin’s hand. “Neither of us can attack during the questioning at any point. So you _will_ agree to put me down. Now, do you accept these terms as they have been stated or not?”

Something tingled within Kevin’s chest, making him draw in a sharp breath. The binding magic. He hadn’t even said his answer yet, and it was already preparing itself. He went through the terms in his mind, and it all boiled down to whether they decided if each other was a threat. There was only one way to move forward.

He met her red-irised gaze and nodded. “I accept.”

“You are bound,” she said, trying too hard to be ominous. He tried not to laugh. Kinda hard for her to look intimidating when she was trapped from the shoulders down in his fist.

“So are you,” he reminded her.

Although he had every intention to put her down, a force tugged him toward the table before he could move himself. The deal was officially underway. He gave a start and tried to pull back on instinct, only to receive more force as a consequence. It didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t pleasant either. He lowered his hand onto the table on his own before his free will could be taken away again. Uncurling his fingers, he released the tiny woman onto the wooden surface.

The fairy skittered away from his hand even when he pulled it away. She turned to face him and flexed her wings, brushing her front with a huffy sigh. Kevin could see soy sauce stains already settling into the lighter shades of her clothing.

“I’ll go first,” she announced, squaring her shoulders.

Kevin didn’t argue, pulling the chair closer to the table. Despite the deal making it impossible for either of them to attack, he kept a fair distance. Small and vulnerable-looking or not, Sam claimed that Dean had his ass handed to him by a fairy the size of his finger.

“My first question.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why have you warded this room?”

He blinked at her. It was the weirdest thing. Instead of processing an answer like he normally would, the words flew right to his lips without a second thought. No control. The deal was working its magic, and there was no going back.

“I’m taking a break, but vacations aren’t exactly easy when there’s things out there trying to get me. Angels, demons. Who knows what else. So this place is warded against anything searching for me.” Kevin pressed his lips closed. The fairy hadn’t mentioned how hard it would be shut up once he started answering.

To his surprise, the fairy wrinkled her nose and looked almost empathetic. “Angels and demons? I don’t like ‘em.”

Kevin chuckled. “Yeah, I’m not a fan either. Anyway. My first question. What are you doing in here?”

She looked like she saw that one coming. “I sensed sanctuary. The wards. I wasn’t searching for you. I had nothing against you, so I was able to get in through a hole in the roof. Now anyone looking for me can’t find me either with these wards.” She closed her mouth hard. Even she wasn’t immune to the pull of the deal.

Something was after her. Kevin couldn’t imagine what someone would want with a weak little fairy. He could find out. He had four more questions at his disposal, but… he needed to know more about other things. She couldn’t lie because of the deal, but she could still be a threat even if she hadn’t been searching for him.

“My second question,” the fairy announced, adopting a serious face once again. “How do you know about my kind and our weaknesses unless you’ve hunted or killed some of us before?”

“Internet,” Kevin said without needing to be compelled to. “I found some folklore and went from there.” The magic decided he hadn’t said enough, and he was forced to add, “Also went off some info I heard from my friends Sam and Dean Winchester. They’ve killed fairies.”

The blood drained from the fairy’s face.

“Listen, hey. They’re far away from here, alright? Not gonna hunt you down anytime soon.” He paused, but she didn’t answer, shuffling her feet on the grainy surface of the table. He cleared his throat. “So, uh. My second question. Have you ever killed or hurt any humans?”

The color returned to her face all at once in deep blush. A resentful look was sent his way before she looked back down. “No,” she muttered, sounding pained in her effort to hold back honesty. “You’re the first human I’ve ever met.”

Kevin smirked. “So you were bluffing before. About taking on humans.” No wonder she looked so scared. He would be too, talking to a comparatively giant person for the first time and thinking they killed his kind for a living.

“Do these Winchesters actively go around hunting fairies?” She licked her lips, looking more apprehensive than ever. Of all the questions to choose from, she went with one that wasn’t even about him.

He couldn’t stop his expression from softening. “They’re hunters,” the deal-magic made him say. “But I don’t think they’ve come across fairies that often. I mean, they come across what they come across. Besides… I remember Dean mentioning that there was a _good_ fairy they met, from the forest of Avalon? She was human-sized, controlled by a human to kill people. When she snapped out of it, the Winchesters let her go.”

“Hunters… let a fairy go?” She shook her head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. Your third question, hunter?”

He thought hard about it. After all of his research, he knew enough about the folklore fairy type and realms that he had an idea of what question would be useful to figuring out what exactly she was--and her temperament. “Where are you from?”

Her dark eyebrows shot up. “Byderaill,” she said. “I believe you humans know it as the ‘Otherworld’.”

Kevin didn’t have to wonder for long. He remembered references to “Otherworld” plenty of times, and he remembered the mention of tiny winged beings linked to the realm as well. “So, you’re an Ellyllon?”

She scoffed and crossed her teeny arms. It look a little awkward, seeing as she didn’t have a right hand to tuck away into the crook of her left arm. “Is that your fourth question?”

“No! Never mind. Don’t answer that.”

Cocking her head, she mulled it over. “I s’pose I’ll let it slide. This time. But yes. I’m an Ellyllon. You know that from your… Internet?”

“Is that _your_ fourth question?”

“No!”

“Fine. But yes. The Internet.”

She looked like wasn’t sure whether she wanted to laugh or slap him. She did neither, moving on to her fourth question. “Tell me more, hunter. What do you do that makes you have to be hiding?”

Now _that_ question made him nervous. He knew there were plenty of things out there that would love to get their hands on a prophet. Not that she was in any position to take the upperhand at the moment. “I’m a prophet. _The_ Prophet. I translate the Word of God, tablets… There’s things out there that would literally kill to get to me. So I need these wards.”

The fairy raised an eyebrow. “The angels and demons.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah. Not all angels are bad, though. I’m friends with one. Well, he can be pushy and demanding as hell when he’s under pressure. But he’s one of the good guys, for sure.”

She snorted. “I doubt it.”

Kevin opened his mouth to argue but thought better. There were still questions left, and he didn’t want to let one slip through his fingers by accident while defending Castiel’s honor. “Who’s been searching for you?” he asked. “You said you were hiding in here from someone. Who?” His trust in the wards was shaky enough as it was. All he needed was some kind of fairy-hunter to worry about.

Tiny lips pressing into a thin line, the fairy looked like she wanted to hold back her answer again. 

“I committed a crime in the eyes of the realm,” she blurted. “Murdered one of my own in self-defense. Knights have been searching for me. I sensed the wards and… I wanted to rest. To sleep without worry of being caught.” Her cheeks went red again, and she glared at Kevin like she expected him to laugh at her. Before he could break out of his stunned silence assure her that he would do no such thing, she went on. “My last question. When this is over, do you plan to turn your Winchesters loose on me, to hunt for me or my kind?”

Kevin wished he could say that he wouldn’t consider doing something like that. “I thought about it,” he admitted. Seeing her outraged expression, he went on hastily, “But I won’t! I mean… If I figured you were a threat by the end of this, I would’ve _had_ to tell them.” 

The strange buzzing sensation in his chest lifted. His part of the binding deal was done. All that was left was to get one more answer out of the fairy. She had a conflicted look on her face, like she wasn’t sure whether to believe him. But she had to know there was no way he could lie. He was bound by the same magic as her to tell the truth.

“What is it you want to know, hu--prophet?”

He settled back into his chair wearily. He could ask her what happened with her murdering in self-defense. He saw the way her eyes darkened mournfully upon being forced to say it. Whatever was going on, it didn’t seem like what was happening to her was fair.

“Okay… Why do you look the way you do? How did you lose your hand? And what are those markings on you face for?”

“Hey!” She stiffened and dropped her arms to her sides, one tiny fist clenching. “That’s more than one question, boyo!”

“It’s _technically_ one question.” He leaned forward a little, smiling at the way she bravely held her ground while his eyes scanned her over. “I want to know why you look the way you do--just happens to have more than one answer.”

Apparently, the binding magic took it as a valid question. “Alright, then,” she started begrudgingly. “My hand was severed as punishment for trying to snatch something from Queen Mab’s palace. I pledged myself to serve in her court afterwards because she spared my life.” She brushed her fingertips across the bright tattoos under her eyes. “These are the marks of those in service to her court.”

Kevin’s eyes were wide. “But you said you weren’t aligned with anyone.”

A sad smile tugged at her lips. “Not anymore.”

“Okay, but… You mean you worked for _the_ Queen Mab? Like the one from the legends?”

The fairy pushed her fingers back through her messy hair, giving him a lazy shrug of her shoulders. “I’m not bound anymore, prophet. I have no obligation to answer you. The deal is complete. And if I’m right… we are both satisfied.”

“You don’t see me as a threat?”

She scoffed. “Not enough to give up these wards. Considering you don’t seem to be kicking me out, _you_ don’t see me as a threat.”

Kevin shrugged. “Guess not.” Her shoulders slumped in relief, and she rubbed her eyes. Finally, the little high-strung fairy looked at ease, though exhausted. He frowned at her curiously. “How long have those knights been chasing you? You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

She gave him and offended look. “In that case, I hope you’ll allow me to sleep instead of asking me more questions that I have no obligation to answer,” she said coolly.

Kevin lurched back in his seat when her wings hummed to life and carried her off the table. He watched her path to the bed, allowing himself to stare in awe at the fact he was witnessing a person fly. He’d seen incredible things before--though they were almost always listed under the _terrible_ category too. It was nice to come into contact with one of the few non-human things that weren’t inherently evil.

“Woah, hey!” He stood, frowning when he realized she was curling up on his pillow and making herself comfortable. He pushed his chair in and moved over to the bedside.

The fairy gave a violent flinch when his shadow fell over her. She threw her arms over her head, curling up tighter in alarm.

“Relax, didn’t mean to scare you,” he said hastily. “Besides… I thought I couldn’t hurt you because of the deal? What are you freaking out for?”

She dropped her arms and sat up, throwing a scowl up at him. “You don’t have’ta hurt me to _grab_ me.” She shook her head, looking like she was mentally kicking herself for giving him an idea. “Should’ve put that in the deal. No grabbing.”

“I wasn’t going to--” He bit back a shiver at the thought of feeling her tiny struggles in his fist again. “Look, just saying. That’s my side of the bed. Already claimed it and everything.”

“Well, I’m already comfortable,” she grumbled, laying back down with a huff.

“What, not worried I’m gonna grab you anymore? Because I _could_ change my mind any second.”

She shut her eyes and shrugged, but he could still see how tense she was. “You grab me, and I’ll blacken your eye. Simple as that.”

He laughed. “But you can’t hurt me. The deal--”

“The deal was that _you_ couldn't hurt me. Remember, I only said I wouldn't try to kill you. Ever hear of someone dying from a black eye? Didn’t think so.”

Kevin faltered, racking his mind to remember what the exact wording the terms were. Maybe she was lying... Or maybe she wasn't. He groaned and dragged a hand down his face. He doubted he would be getting any sleep that night with the knowledge that maybe their deal wasn't so airtight after all.

Nonetheless, he moved over to take a seat in the armchair he had left beside the bed while researching. No way he was sharing the bed with her, even if she only took up a fraction of it. Besides that, the cover was still covered with take-out box ashes. "Fine. You can have it, I guess. But you have to answer one last question." 

She scoffed. "I don’t have to do sh--"

"It'll be easy," he insisted. "I'll even answer it first, if that makes you feel better."

She turned her head from where it was buried into the pillow, aiming a curious eye at him. "What is it?"

"What's your name? I'm Kevin. Kevin Tran."

She looked about as shocked as he expected her to be, though she recovered faster than he would have thought. "Mimialya Peake.”

"Mimra… Mimala--"

“Mimi,” she supplied before he could butcher her name any further.

Kevin smiled. “Oh, that’s… easier.” It wasn't until he settled down into the armchair and glanced to the side that he realized she was still staring at him with a weird look on her face. He thought maybe it was because she was scared with him sitting so close, but it was something else. "What?"

"You were right," she said simply. "You're not a hunter. You're a proper gentleman, Kevin Tran. And you know what happens to proper gentlemen when they get involved with the likes of angels and demons and hunters and monsters and the like? They wind up dead.”

He had to suppress a shudder at her seriousness of voice. He tried to play it off. "But no danger from hanging out with fairies, huh?"

She said nothing.

"Listen... How long are you planning on staying?" he asked after the silence stretched out for half a minute. "I don't know how long these wards last, and uh... I'm not staying here for long."

"I'll be gone before morning light," she said, firm despite sounding like she was drifting off already. "I just want decent rest for one night. That's all, then I’m gone. Besides, I'm not keen on running into your Winchesters."

"That's probably for the best," he mumbled.

**_END._**


End file.
